MacCAM (often written as MacCam, Mac-Cam or Mac Cam) is a system of

slow-motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slo-mo or slow-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use ...

cameras developed by FastCAM Replay LLC and DEL Imaging Systems LLC used during

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

matches to replay close or controversial line calls. The system is named after

John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was known for his shot-making and volleying skills, his rivalries with Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, and his confrontational on-court beha ...

, who was infamous for contesting

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

calls.

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

was the first network to use the MacCam widely, as John McEnroe was one of their tennis analysts.

History

The MacCam was used at the 2004 U.S. Open to demonstrate several poor calls by chair umpires. In

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...

' controversial quarterfinal loss to

Jennifer Capriati Jennifer Maria Capriati (born March 29, 1976) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. A member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, she won three singles Grand Slam titles and was the gold medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics ...

, several poor calls were contested by Williams. Television replays demonstrated that there were actually several crucial calls that were obviously erroneous. Following this match, the chair umpire Mariana Alves did not officiate for the remainder of the tournament; this however was not punitive, as commonly thought, as she was not scheduled to officiate. A major limitation of the MacCAM was that it could only evaluate the baseline—not sidelines or service line calls. It was ultimately supplanted by Hawk-Eye and similar technologies.

Details

The MacCAM system has since been replaced at the US Open as well as other supporting tournaments with the ShotSpot system. In the US Open it was available only where the venue has necessary equipment (Arthur Ashe stadium).

Trivia

* Though

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...

ed by FastCAM Replay, the phrase "Mac Cam" is sometimes used generically by American media to refer to any manual or automated line monitoring, ball tracking or replay system, including Hawk-Eye, Cyclops, PointTracker and Auto-Ref.

References

{{Tennis on CBS Tennis equipment Sports officiating technology